Nature Vs. Your Wedding

It seems as if there are about a hundred things that can go wrong when planning an outdoor wedding. Unfortunately, it’s the truth, and bad weather is most definitely at the very top of that list. This is why planning ahead is so important! Don’t just hope for the best; make sure you will be prepared if nature picks your wedding day to strike.

Time of Year and Location

Certain months of the year have consistently worse weather than others but this can also depend on your wedding location. Most likely, you’ll have chosen a venue close to home, so you should have a good idea of what kind of weather to expect for that time of year, but if you’re having a destination wedding, make sure to do your research early in your planning stages.

For many places, winter means snow, ice, and sleet, but even the more popular wedding months still have a risk of bad weather. Most people choose a wedding date somewhere between May and September. While these months usually have a better chance of warm weather with clear skies, unexpected rain storms aren’t uncommon, and they can pop up in a matter of minutes.

A lot of people also forget to consider super hot weather in more humid, southern locations. Being too hot can be a huge problem, especially for an outdoor wedding. Without proper hydration and shade, you run the risk of people getting heat stroke. Food can be at risk of spoiling too, if left in the hot sun for too long.

Consider What Could Happen

Consider all of the things that can go wrong in your season and locale when you’re planning. There are no pinpoint weather reports that can help you with predicted temperatures and precipitation, so you’ll just have to gauge the best you can.. Could it get too hot or too cold? How high is the chance of rain or snow for that month? It might be a scary task to really think about all the things that could potentially put a damper on your wedding day, but it’s necessary in order to make sure your big day isn’t interrupted at the last minute.

Make a Plan for Each Scenario

Once you’ve done some research to figure out what to watch out for, it’s time to devise solutions! For example, if there’s a good chance of rain, you might decide to rent tents for your outdoor wedding or have a stash of umbrellas ready for the day of to keep guests dry. If there’s a good chance it could get unbearably hot, you might seek an outdoor space that has plenty of shade and provide hand fans and water for each guest. There’s always something you can do, and it’s best to have a plan in place in advance, rather than trying to fix it on the fly.

The best thing to do if you run into severe weather is have an indoor “rain” location. If you’re in the courtyards or gardens at a hotel or historic venue, see if these arrangements can be made with the event staff prior to your wedding, just in case.

Read Your Contracts

Whenever you decide to work with a vendor, you’re going to have a contract. However, make sure you really read each contract for every vendor so you have a clear understanding of what you have agreed to do in case of bad weather, rescheduling, or cancellations. Also, don’t be afraid to negotiate the terms of these contracts, and don’t sign anything that you aren’t comfortable with, within reason.

Trust Your Vendors

Chances are, your vendors will have loads of experience handling every crisis under the sun and will know what to do in case of bad weather. They might even have their own plan in place for every kind of scenario. After all, these are the professionals, and they’re most likely familiar with what to do. Still, make sure you talk to them in advance about their contingency plans. Then, trust them to do what they’re good at.

Get Insurance

A wedding policy will insure you for a variety of problems, bad weather being just one of them. It should cover the cost of rescheduling the wedding, including all of the fine details such as flowers, venue, and food. Therefore, if you’re truly worried about whether your luck will hold out, it’s a good thing to look into.

Consider Rescheduling

If you do decide to cancel your wedding, you can still go ahead with the ceremony if you’d like and just reschedule the reception party for another date. However, if the weather is so bad that you would rather reschedule the entire thing, that’s when the aforementioned insurance really comes in handy.

It’s your day and you know what you want, but it is highly unlikely that the weather won’t be so horrible that rescheduling even makes sense.

Have Fun

In the end, bad weather is never planned, but it can be planned for. Make sure you do everything in your power to have solutions in place if nature turns for the worse, and then relax, knowing you’ve done all you can. This is your special day, and a bit of bad weather won’t be the death of it.